ed./45This is a legend that took place on the Mai Kusa (River) on the Western coast of Papua New Guinea.Following the death of his wife a man decided to give his daughter a pet to help console her and keep her company. He brought her a puppy but she didn’t like it. He then brought her a piglet but she didn’t like that either (both the dog and piglet are seen at the bottom of the print). One day when he was out spearing fish on the beach he came across a baby crocodile which he caught and took home to show his daughter.She really liked it and named the crocodile Ubirikubiri. Her father made a pen for the crocodile. As it grew he kept enlarging the pen. After it had become fully grown the father went to visit friends in another village and neglected to feed Ubirikubiri the entire time he was away. When he returned Ubirikubiri was very hungry and very annoyed having been left without food for such a long time. As the father went to feed Ubirikubiri some fish he grabbed him and killed him then broke out of the pen placing the father on his back and heading off to the Mai Kusi leaving the tracks seen in centre of the print. The daughter, who had not been at home when Ubirikubiri seized her father, saw the broken pen and evidence of a skirmish. She followed Ubirikubiri’s tracks to the river calling out to the crocodile to tell her about her father. At Ziba Ziba (that time of day when the sun has almost set) Ubirikubiri appeared on the river bank with her father on his back. She pleaded with the crocodile to give up her father but shaking his huge body he refused and headed back in to the river. There is a moral to part of this story that instructs us that if animals are taken from their natural environment they must be looked after and treated and cared for properly.